Hammer and the Anvil, The: Dispatches from the Frontline of the Russian Civil War, 1918-1919

In his memoir Year One of the Russian Revolution, the great chronicler of that year, Victor Serge, wrote that the eye-witness dispatches sent from the Eastern Front in 1918 and 1919, by the Bolshevik journalist Larissa Reisner, were a 'psychological document and historical testimony of the first importance'. Written in a unique style, which combines poetic flourishes with first-rate reportage, Reisner's first-hand accounts from the frontline were first published in the journal of the Petersburg Soviet, Izvestia. Her reports include vivid descriptions of the disastrous retreat from Volga naval base at Kazan later described by Trotsky as marking the low point of the revolution and then the miraculous turnaround which emerged after the arrival of Trotsky's famous armoured train and the heroic defence of the hitherto unknown outpost of Sviyazhsk. In this crucible, the beginnings of what would become the Red Army and Red Navy were forged. In addition to a new translation of Larissa Reisner's writings from this period, this book includes a chapter by Trotsky from his autobiography, My Life - entitled A Month in Sviyazhsk - plus brief biographies of leading participants, most of whom did not survive the Stalin era and were subsequently written out of history.